New York City
pianist Adam Birnbaum hasn't been keeping a low profile in recent years. While
touring internationally with drum legend Al Foster's quartet and subbing
regularly in Darcy James Argue's Secret Society and with recently minted vocal star
Cécile McLorin Salvant he's also released several well-received CDs under his
own name. Still, his new album Three of A Mind marks a major leap for the
pianist, capturing a working ensemble with enviable chemistry. Slated for
release on February 10, 2015, the trio session is the work of an artist with
unimpeachable taste, exquisite touch, and a commanding vision.
Though Birnbaum is
joined by two celebrated rhythm section partners, the album is no ad hoc
all-star session. He and bassist Doug Weiss have spent the past six years
together working with Foster, and the trio's road-tested cohesion shines on
every track. In many ways Birnbaum designed the album to showcase Foster, a
drummer who "embodies true musicianship," Birnbaum says. "He has
huge ears. He doesn't just keep time. He actively engages you, creating a
constant dialogue. If you can learn to ride the wave of rhythms he is throwing
at you it makes your own ideas sound even hipper."
A supremely
accomplished accompanist, "Weiss is one of the premiere bassists
around," Birnbaum says. "His sense of taste, rock-solid time, and
superb melodicism make him in many ways the perfect bassist. He doesn't go for
flash, but for true music making, and his ears are always open to going
wherever the music takes him."
The album opens
with Birnbaum's rock-inflected "Binary," an irresistibly upbeat tune
that he wrote to slyly draw Foster back to Miles territory. In much the same
way, he composed "Dream Waltz" with the trio in mind. An alluring
melody with an uncomplicated song form, the piece facilitates some beautifully
balanced group interplay. The pianist is at his most rhapsodic on the enchanted
ballad "Rockport Moon," and at his most ambitious on the blues-like
"Dream Song # 1: Huffy Henry," one of a dozen pieces he composed for
a suite inspired by John Berryman's wildly creative poems.
Though Foster isn't
widely known as a composer, he's written many memorable tunes, including two
that Birnbaum chose to include on Three of A Mind. Written for Foster's son,
"Brandyn" is a tricky piece that opens in 12/8 before eventually
settling into some sizzling swing. It's a recognizable but significantly
reimagined version of the piece that Foster introduced back in 1996 as the
title track of his first album as a leader (with Larry Grenadier, Dave Kikoski
and Chris Potter). And Foster's pleasingly aggressive "Ooh What You Do To
Me" closes the album with a satisfying whomp. No fuss, no muss, this is a
trio that takes care of business.
Birnbaum is an
award-winning player who has more than lived up to his considerable promise
since graduating from Juilliard as part of the first class of the illustrious
conservatory's jazz program. Born and raised in Boston, Birnbaum spent his
early years studying the European classical tradition. At 13 he got exposed to
jazz and turned onto improvisation, and he spent the rest of his teenage years
dividing his attention between the worlds of jazz and classical music.
While studying at
Boston College, Birnbaum connected with New England Conservatory's Danilo
Perez, and the great Panamanian pianist became an important mentor. He
graduated from Boston College with a degree in computer science but spent the
bulk of his time practicing piano. The shedding prepared him for plunging into
the New York scene in 2001 via Juilliard, where he was one of only two pianists
selected for inaugural class in the conservatory's new jazz program. He worked
closely with piano legend Kenny Barron, and later studied with Fred Hersch
"who really opened another world for me," Birnbaum says.
In 2004 he won the
American Jazz Piano Competition and became the American Pianists Association's
Cole Porter fellow in jazz. In 2006, he received the first-ever "special
mention" prize at the Martial Solal Jazz Piano Competition in Paris. More
important than any contest was the call he received from alto sax master Greg
Osby, one of jazz's keenest talent scouts. On the recommendation of bassist
Matt Brewer, Osby hired Birnbaum for a series of gigs starting at Birdland. His
phone started to ring regularly after that.
Over the past
decade Birnbaum has performed with veteran masters such as Wallace Roney, Eddie
Henderson, Eddie Gomez, and Jazz at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis, as
well as with well-established contemporaries such as Pedro Giraudo, Marshall
Gilkes and Dominick Farinacci. As a leader, Birnbaum has released two albums in
Japan under the Pony Canyon label in 2006: Ballade Pour Adeline with Quincy
Davis and Matt Brewer (which received a Gold Disk award from Swing Journal as
one of the top albums of the year), and A Comme Amour with Ben Wolfe and Rodney
Green. Smalls Records released his 2009 US debut, Travels, a critically hailed
album with Joe Sanders and Rodney Green.
By far the most
significant relationship of his career has been with Al Foster. Miles Davis
famously described his first encounter with Foster saying that the drummer
"knocked me out because he had such a groove and he would just lay it
right in there." Foster went on to spent more time accompanying the
trumpet legend than any other drummer, recording more than a dozen albums with
Davis, from 1972's hugely controversial On The Corner through his 1981 comeback
The Man With the Horn, and all three career-capping sessions produced by Marcus
Miller. Sought out by fellow masters, he's also recorded extensively with Sonny
Rollins, Joe Henderson, and McCoy Tyner.
Birnbaum set his
sights on Foster's quartet when he got word that Kevin Hays was leaving the
group in 2009. Not the easiest musician to approach, Foster presented a
forbidding front. But after showing up at various gigs around New York,
Birnbaum eventually got the chance to sit in at Smoke (with a little help from
Weiss). He's been with Foster ever since, while the horn chair has showcased
some of the era's most potent tenor saxophonists, such as Dayna Stephens and
Eric Alexander. For Birnbaum, the experience has been the ultimate jazz
education, "a real connection to another era," he says. "These
aren't the kind of lessons you can learn verbally or in a classroom. There's an
intensity that Al brings whenever he gets behind the drums. He expects
something special to happen every time he plays, and if it's not happening
he'll be upset with himself and the band. This is not just a way to make money
for him. Music is his life. It means everything to him." It's an ethic
that Birnbaum has clearly absorbed, and that manifests itself throughout Three
Of A Mind.
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